speaking in the white house briefing room, president obama condemned congress for failing to resolve its differences in in normal way. he held firm to middle-class tax cuts to families making $250,000 per year. joining me now from the white house is nbc's kristen welker. kristen, let's take a look at what the president said about what he expects from the senate. >> i just had a good discussion from house leadership about how to prevent this on the middle class. i believe we can reach an agreement. if an agreement isn't reached in time between senator reid and sno senator mccollum, i will reach to him. i believe such a proposal could pass both houses with bipartisan majorities as long as the leaders allow it to actually come to a vote. if members of the house or the senate want to vote no, they can. but we should let everybody vote. >> kristen, this up or down vote seems to be the big news of the day. isn't this what the white house wanted all along? >> well, it is and it's president obama's way of saying, look, vote on his basic proposal, the proposal that would extend middle-class t